


finding myself back here

by weasleytook



Category: Revenge (TV)
Genre: Comment Fic, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 15:52:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nolan has a place, a place that reminds him just how dangerous his friendship with Emily is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	finding myself back here

**Author's Note:**

> Just some hastily written comment fic written over the summer!

It happens by accident. At least the first time it does.

He’s driving in from the city after a business meeting and accidentally misses his usual turn and ends up right in front of Mason Treadwell’s house. Or what’s left of it anyway.

It’s just a pile of rubble. Charred wood, twisted metal and remnants of what once was. But for Nolan, it seems like it’s alive. A living, breathing entity that sits there as a reminder of what Emily Thorne is capable of. 

He doesn’t begrudge her the right to avenge what has been done to her and he never has. Treadwell is slime, the worst of the worst, and so are the rest of the people Emily has been systematically taking down.

But there’s a part of him, cold and dark and way deep down, that wonders when it’s his turn.

Not that he’s ever considered himself a direct target. But sometimes you don’t need to be. He could end up just another casualty of war.

It’s those thoughts that keep him from getting too close.

When he’s spent too much time near her, when he feels like he’s caring too much, that he’s seeing a side of her that no one else sees, he ends up outside that lot of debris.

He thinks of Treadwell. He thinks of Dr. Banks. He thinks of how she was just a moment away from killing the man who killed her father.

His crimes are not like theirs, and on their best days, Emily refers to him as a friend. But he doesn’t know what that word really means to her and how long that friendship can last as long as she’s in the business of vengeance.

So when he feels like he’s letting his guard down, like he’s letting her get too close, that burned out shell of a house becomes his reminder that he can never fully put his trust in her.

He wants to. More than anything he wants to be able to trust her and believe that she’ll never turn her back on him like she has so many others. On those rare days when she lets her guard down or asks him about his past, he thinks maybe they’ll get there someday.

But most days he has less and less hope that the sweet happy girl she once was will return. David had told her about that girl, and it’s rare that he even sees a spark of that anymore.

When he returns to the Hamptons after the following summer, he takes the long way past Treadwell’s again and is surprised at what he sees. The ruins have been cleared and already a new foundation is being laid for a new owner.

So he wonders. Wonders if maybe anything can be rebuilt as long as you start from the ground up. He knows that’s true with buildings. He knows from experience it’s true with business. Maybe it’s true with people too.

And the next time Emily gives him one of those rare hugs, he pushes the images of the destroyed house out of his head and hugs her just a little tighter than usual. He knows it’s a risk, being her friend, but if he wasn’t a risk-taker, he would have never created NolCorp.

Maybe when she’s finally torn down everything around her, she can rebuild herself from the ground up. And if that day comes, then he plans on being there to witness it.


End file.
